God's Middle East Peace Plan - by Bill Salus - http://www.prophecydepotministries.net/2016/gods-middle-east-peace-plan/
Since Israel became a nation in 1948, the international community has been unsuccessful in all of its bids to bring a lasting peace to the Middle East. The latest attempts by France in this regard on June of 2016, will prove to be as nonproductive as its predecessors. The time has come for the global community to think outside of the box for alternative solutions to this problem. If they don't, diplomacy will soon be interrupted by war!
The reasons for their failures to accomplish peace are actually quite simple to understand and explain. The simple explanation is that the only successful method to achieve this illusive peace is to follow the blueprint model provided in the Holy Scriptures.
The Arab-Israeli conflict is deeply rooted in an ancient hatred. The Bible identifies it as a perpetual enmity and it is integrated into the geo-political and religious complexities existing in the region today. It's a spiritual matter and it cannot be satisfied through secular solutions. This means that the Lord must be the essential part of the final equation.
Fortunately, the Bible provides a specific plan for Mideast peace and the Arabs will be glad to know that it does include a land for peace clause. This article provides the biblical basis for the only successful manner to end the Arab-Israeli conflict and achieve a lasting peace in the Middle East.
ISRAEL IS A MIRACLE
"As the prophet Amos said, they (The Jews) shall rebuild ruined cities (In Israel) and inhabit them. They shall plant vineyards and drink their wine. They shall till gardens and eat their fruit. And I will plant them upon their soil never to be uprooted again. Ladies and gentlemen, the people of Israel have come home never to be uprooted again." (Benjamin Netanyahu - UN General Assembly, October 1, 2013)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed the world at the UN General assembly that Israel exists today in fulfillment of the Lord's plan as foretold in Bible prophecy. The quote above was taken from Amos 9:14-15. This is simply one verse among many others that predicted the restoration of the nation of Israel.
One of these other related prophecies declares that the current regathering of world Jewry into Israel is a bigger miracle than the parting of the Red Seas. That monumental miracle at the time of Moses has rightfully been memorialized in the minds of the Jews throughout their history. However, Jeremiah the prophet predicts, that the Red Seas parting will pale in comparison to the regathering taking place presently.
"Therefore, behold, the days are coming," says the LORD, "that they shall no longer say, 'As the LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,' but, 'As the LORD lives who brought up and led the descendants of the house of Israel from the north country and from all the countries where I had driven them.' And they shall dwell in their own land." (Jeremiah 23:7)
The first thing that the world leaders need to recognize and accept is that Israel exists today as a marquee miracle of God. The Bible informs that the timing, location and reason for the creation of a nation, or recreation in Israel's case, is determined and implemented by the Lord.
"And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings." (Acts 17:26)
Thus, the existence of Israel today is appointed by the Lord to be the Jewish state. Once this critical understanding is acknowledged by the pertinent parties, then the Bible's Mideast peace plan can be appreciated and supported.
The secular mindset generally believes that the existence of Israel resulted from a United Nations moral obligation to provide a safe haven for the Jews after the horrendous holocaust. This is a fallacy and detracts from the momentous sovereign undertakings of the Lord to put Israel back on the modern day maps. This ignorance facilitates the mindset that believes man has the power to rezone the biblical Promised Land to its favor. It also enables the Palestinians and their Arab cohorts to deny the existence of Israel as the Jewish state.
According to Bible prophecies, Israel is to be recognized as the Jewish state now! Beating around the bush and denying this miraculous fact prolongs the agony. In light of the dangerous conflicts taking place all over the Middle East, there is no more time for the global community to test the Lord's patience in this matter.
THE BIBLE'S MIDEAST PEACE PLAN
The plan inscribed below, which was presented by the prophet Jeremiah approximately2600 years ago, was to be fully implemented when Israel became a nation on May 14, 1948. Failure to do so has caused over six decades of conflict in the Middle East!
"Thus says the LORD: "Against all My evil neighbors who touch the inheritance which I have caused My people Israel to inherit-behold, I will pluck them [the Arabs] out of their [the Jews] land [Israel] and pluck out the house of Judah from among them [the surrounding Arab nations]. Then it shall be, after I have plucked them out, that I will return and have compassion on them and bring them back, everyone to his heritage and everyone [Jew and Arab] to his [respective] land. And it shall be, if they [the resettled Arabs] will learn carefully the ways of My people, to swear by My name, 'As the LORD lives,' as they taught My people to swear by Baal, then they shall be established in the midst of My people. But if they do not obey, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation," says the LORD. (Jeremiah 12:14-17, NKJV; emphasis added)
This plan represents the compassionate peaceful political and spiritual solutions to the regional problems of the return of the Jew into the Holy Land. Jeremiah suggests that his God would cause the corridors to open for the Arabs to leave the land destined to become the Jewish state and return to the lands of their ancestry. In addition, He would resettle the Jews out of the surrounding Arab nations, and bring them back into their homeland Israel. As each ethnic group migrated, they would vacate homes and jobs enabling economic opportunities for the returning peoples and in some cases, already existing communities to inhabit. These Jeremiah passages represent the ancient blueprints, divinely designed to insure the successful return of the Jewish people back to the land of their heritage.
This plan was put into sovereign place after World War I when the Arab countries gained their statehoods. Jeremiah 12:15 says, "I will return and have compassion on them and bring them back, everyone to his heritage and everyone [Jew and Arab] to his [respective] land." How's that for a land for peace solution? The remapping of the atlases after World War I makes the political land for peace deals of our time pale in comparison.
The Middle East conflict that confounds the politicians today has not caught God off guard. The biblical peace plan took into consideration that there would be "evil neighbors" homesteading the holy land. He foreknew they would need be relocated to make way for the return of the Jewish people. Provisions were included in Jeremiah's prophecy for their future as well. They would be "plucked out" and resettled in their former homelands. A fertile future awaited them, if they entreated their affections to Jehovah, Jeremiah's God.
In an apparent fulfillment of the Jeremiah 12:14-17 prophecy, millions of Arabs have been "plucked out" from the territory formerly recognized as Palestine. For almost seventy years, these uprooted Arabs have been unable to relocate into an alternative homeland. These Arabs from Palestine have been reduced to a refugee status because their Arab relatives have mostly shut their national doors on them. These Palestinian Refugees are in the Gaza, West Bank, and in several of the neighboring Arab nations. These refugees serve as a buffer between Israel and the surrounding Arab states.
These Arab nations have cleverly managed to shift the burden of responsibility for the relocation of these refugees into the lap of the International community, the same community that legislated the re-establishment of the nation Israel as the Jewish State, implemented in 1948. UNRWA the (United Nations Relief and Works Agency), was established May 1, 1950, to find a solution to this refugee problem.
By not taking responsibility to absorb the Palestinian Refugees into their societies, these Arab nations are in a substantial breach of God's Middle East peace plan. Regardless of the breach, God still stated through Jeremiah that if these Arabs would "swear by My name," that they would "be established in the midst of My [Jewish] people." However, on the flip side, "if they do not obey," God "will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation."
The fact that Jeremiah described the affected Arabs as "evil neighbors", who would be "plucked out", indicates that in the foreknowledge of God, the return of the Jew into the holy land, would not be a smooth process. Otherwise, he would have used substitute terms like, "good neighbors", and "escorted out". Hence the world now has an explosive Middle East conflict on its hands.
At this point, it should be duly noted that there is no Jewish Refugee crisis, since they have been welcomed and assimilated into Israeli society. The absence of any such crises is one less burden upon the United Nations, and also evidences that the Jewish people are operating in compliance with the biblically endorsed peace plan.
IT'S TIME TO FACE THE INEVITABLE
The time to have implemented the Lord's Mideast peace plan has passed. The golden opportunities after World War I and World War II were missed. The British Empire missed the first opportunity by failing to execute the Balfour Declaration of 1917. This official document was designed to create a Jewish state after World War I. The creation of Israel prior to World War II would have spared many Jews from the genocidal campaign of the Germans.
The failure of the British Empire to act has led in its downfall. Around the end of the 18th century, the second rise of the British Empire began. At its height, it was the largest empire in history. No other nation in history created as many colonies. The empire grew so rapidly that it was described by the phrase, "the empire on which the sun never set." By 1922, the British Empire held sway over about 458 million people, one-fifth of the world's population. Moreover, the empire covered more than 13,000,000 square miles, almost a quarter of the Earth's total land area. (i)
Today, Great Britain is only a fragment of what it once was! In seventy years, between 1920 and 1990, in the midst of Israel's rebirthing process, Britain collapsed as a world superpower. Now the sun always sets on the British Empire. Today the UK only spans 94,058 square miles and has a population of only about 64 million.
As the British Empire declined, America emerged as the world's superpower nation. We were then called to put the Lord's Mideast peace plan into effect. The USA played an instrumental role in the recreation of Israel. However, America did not seize the chance to enforce the biblical plan for peace at the time. This failure has resulted in US Presidents over the past several decades attempting to recreate this missed opportunity.
Unfortunately, these US Presidents have been and are currently pushing Israel to forfeit land for peace, which is not biblically endorsed, rather than utilizing the Bible's roadmap plan for Mideast peace. This is why their political efforts toward peace continue to fail. It is also one of the reasons that America is declining as a superpower. The Lord lifted up America as the sovereign tool to implement His Middle East peace plan, but the USA has failed and now mankind must face the inevitable.
THE FINAL ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT
dvd2It's doubtful at this point in time that any influential world leader will embrace the Bible's Mideast peace plan. Even if one did, the Arabs won't! Therefore, Jeremiah 12:17 will be the result. "But if they do not obey, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation," says the LORD."
The Arab states that refuse to worship the God of the Bible, rather than the false god Allah, will never embrace this Mideast peace plan. The Lord foreknew this would be the case and instituted the "pluck up and destroy" clause in His Mideast peace plan. The destruction of an Arab state will facilitate the implementation of the Lord's peace plan. That state will no longer exist to oppose this plan.
(i) Quote taken from Wikipedia website at this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/British_Empire on 12/16/15.
Peace Quest Continues - Terry James - http://raptureready.com/rap16.html
Today's date of posting this "Nearing Midnight" article is the 72nd anniversary of D-Day. The allied forces on June 6, 1944, wanted to accomplish two things as they steamed toward the coastline of France. They were intent on defeating and destroying the Nazis' ability to make war. Thereby, they were determined to establish peace that had been taken from the world on a global scale--primarily by the Germans--for the second time in less than a half century.
In reality, however, planet earth has never completely escaped--that is, has never been totally free--of war in recorded history. And, that includes the earliest biblical history. Cain first went to war with his brother, Abel, over jealousy that created rage that ended in the first murder. Man has been killing man ever since, with the slaughter continuing to manifest even on our city streets on a growing scale. I give you as example the streets of south Chicago on which during weekends in particular the black-on-black killing is horrendous.
The governmental authorities, both those in the city of Chicago and the present federal government, at whose heart sits the current presidential administration, hardly even acknowledge that a problem exists in the inner cities. The news conglomerate dutifully also ignores the deadly problem.
There is a satanic cover-up on the war that is raging, taking peace from life in America. The same forces covering up our domestic conflict are dedicated to the cover-up directed at keeping the world at large from knowing about the true causes and effects of the war going on in the Middle East. And, that conflict is destined to bring all of mankind to history's final war of this quickly fleeting age. God's Word tells us that it is the quest for such a peace that will eventuate in the most terrible time in human history. Jesus said as recorded in the Olivet Discourse that it will be a time so terrible that it would destroy all flesh on the planet if He did not return to put an end to the warfare.
Daniel the prophet said the peace that the world will seek will be indeed produced and enforced by the "prince that shall come" (Daniel 8:25; 9:26-27). It will be, the prophet Isaiah said, a covenant made with "death and hell" (Isaiah 28:15, 18). It all involves the Middle East, and, as I said, the news media, as well as our government--and for that matter, the governments of the world--refuse to even acknowledge the true causes and effects of the conflict that makes the quest for peace necessary.
This peace is in the making this very moment while you and I consider these matters in this commentary.
This quest for peace, as I and other prophecy observers have mentioned many times, is the number-one signal of where we stand on God's prophetic timeline. We are watching God's prophetic Word in the process of fulfillment, as we are seeing other prophesies in process of fulfillment. The Gog-Magog forces, for example, are coalescing; the religions of the world are beginning to amalgamate, agreeing that there are many ways to Heaven; the effort to establish one world order is on the move through Agenda 21, 30, and in other ways.
But, again, it is the desire for a Middle East peace, with Israel held up as the sticking point, that the world intensely desires. The world's diplomatic community and the global news conglomerate refuse to hear or propose any narrative other than that which declares the tiny Jewish state guilty of holding up the peace process.
The following news excerpt proves the point, in my view.
The Arab league supported on Saturday France's Middle East peace initiative and all international efforts to create lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians, AFP reported... Speaking before the ministers, [Palestinian president Mahmoud ] Abbas said that the time has come to "mobilize Arab and international wills" towards creating a Palestinian state, however said in order to do so Israel would have to make serious policy changes. Abbas called for NATO forces to replace the IDF in the West Bank as part of any peace deal that leads to the creation of a two-state solution. He also rejected the idea of recognizing Israel as a Jewish state. ("Arab League supportive of French peace initiative," JPOST.COM ,TOVAH LAZAROFF, 05/29/2016)
The pressures are great on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government to give in to world diplomatic insistence that Israel give land for peace. That is something, of course, God says will, when it eventuates, bring total war upon the whole world (see Joel 3:2.) This will be the cause and effect of that great, fearful conflict we have come to know as Armageddon. It will be the result of seeking a false, deadly peace, rather than that lasting and perfect peace that can only be instituted by the Prince of Peace.
Netanyahu and Putin meet as Russia calls for new Israeli-Palestinian talks - Tovah Lazaroff - http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Netanyahu-and-Putin-meet-after-Russia-calls-for-renewal-of-Israel-Palestinian-talks-456159
"There are bonds of sympathy and empathy between Israel and Russia, with a common past that has tragic chapters for both peoples," Netanyahu says.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a face-to-face meeting at the Kremlin late Tuesday afternoon a day after Moscow called for the renewal of Israeli-Palestinian talks.
"It is important to get the Israeli-Palestinian settlement [peace] process going," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Moscow on Monday, at a joint press conference with Finish Foreign Minister Timo Soini who had just met with Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Thursday.
In describing his conversation with Soini, Lavrov said the two men had spoken of the need to resolve regional conflict including the ongoing civil one in Syria.
Lavrov will be meeting on Wednesday with Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki, who will also be visiting Moscow, just as Netanyahu gets ready to fly back to Jerusalem.
Russia, which is a member of the Quartet and also holds one of five permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council, is actively involved in attempts to revive the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations which have been frozen for over two years.
In the past it has made attempts to replace the US as the main broker in helping both sides achieve a deal. It has, therefore, offered lukewarm support to the French as they attempted to fill America's shoes on Friday in Paris, by launching an initiative of their own.
Rather than sending Lavrov as its representative in Paris, it dispatched its Deputy Foreign Minister for Middle East and Africa countries Mikhail Bogdanov.
He reminded reporters in Paris that Russia had wanted to host an international peace conference on resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over a decade ago as he spoke against the international temptation to impose a solution on the Israelis and the Palestinians.
"The idea of an international conference is still perceived negatively by Israel and its opinion cannot be ignored. These circumstances should also be taken into account in the work of the Paris forum, as any externally imposed solutions will likely fail," Bogdanov said.
Russia, however, has gone much further than the US in supporting Palestinian statehood and is counted among the 136 nations that already recognize Palestine as a state. It has also spoken in the past with Hamas.
On Friday, in Paris, Bogdanov said, 'I would like to stress that Palestine's acquisition of national sovereignty is certainly in line with the interests of the international community and would facilitate regional peace and stability and help build a democratic and prosperous Middle East."
He added that resolution of that conflict would reduce the threat of terrorism in that region.
Netanyahu has gone to Moscow to discuss regional security interests and to coordinate the movement of the two militaries as well as to celebrate 25 years of diplomatic ties between Israel and Russia.
He has already laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Lone Soldier and helped inaugurate an exhibit at Moscow's main Manege exhibition hall, "Open a Door to Israel" on innovation and technology.
Among those presenting made-in Israel products is a settler delegation organized by the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea and Samaria.
Settlers have turned increasingly to Russia as an alternative friendly market for their products in response to the increasingly hostile climate toward them in Europe.
Netanyahu spoke in general of the warming Russian-Israel ties at the exhibit.
"We certainly feel at home. Israel's doors are open to Russia and Russia's doors are open to Israel," he said.
"We are marking 25 years since the resumption of relations between us, and not only in culture and technology, but in so many other fields as well," he said, as he referenced the role that Russian immigrants play as a bridge between the two countries.
"There is also a human bridge of over one million Russian-speakers who are our bone and our flesh, but who also come as goodwill ambassadors of a deep sympathy, Israeli citizens who emigrated from the former USSR.
"Those who were born and raised in the country absorbed much Russian culture and music," Netanyahu said.
"There are bonds of sympathy and empathy between Israel and Russia, with a common past that has tragic chapters for both peoples, but also a very strong willingness to grasp and develop the future and move forward in creating a better future," Netanyahu said.
Israel is very important to Russia because it is one of the significant countries in the Middle East, Russia President Vladimir Putin told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when the two men sat down to talk in the Kremlin on Tuesday afternoon.
"We attach great importance to our contacts with Israel, not only because Israel is one of the key countries on the situation in the Middle East, but also due to historical relations between our countries," Putin said.
"I am confident that your visit will be fruitful and will serve the cause of further strengthening our relations," he added.
Israel's new enemy - the international left - Daniel Pipes -
Since the creation of Israel, Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims have been the mainstay of anti-Zionism, with the left, from the Soviet Union to professors of literature, their auxiliary. But this might be in process of change: as Muslims slowly, grudgingly, and unevenly come to accept the Jewish state as a reality, the left is becoming increasingly vociferous and obsessive in its rejection of Israel.
Much evidence points in this direction. Polls in the Middle East find cracks in the opposition to Israel, while a major American survey for the first time shows liberal Democrats to be more anti-Israel than pro-Israel. The Saudi and Egyptian governments have real security relations with Israel while a figure like (the Jewish) Bernie Sanders declares that "to the degree that (Israelis) want us to have a positive relationship, I think they're going to have to improve their relationship with the Palestinians."
But I should like to focus on a small illustrative example from a United Nations institution. The World Health Organization churned out report A69/B/CONF./1 on May 24, with the enticing title, "Health conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory, including east Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan: Draft decision proposed by the delegation of Kuwait, on behalf of the Arab Group, and Palestine."
The three-page document calls for "a field assessment conducted by the World Health Organization," with special focus on such topics as "incidents of delay or denial of ambulance service" and "access to adequate health services on the part of Palestinian prisoners." Of course, the entire document singles out Israel as a denier of unimpeded access to health care.
This ranks as a special absurdity, given the WHO's hiring a consultant in next-door Syria who is connected to the very pinnacle of the Assad regime, even as it perpetrates atrocities estimated at a half million dead and 12 million displaced (out of a total pre-war population of 22 million). Conversely, both the wife and brother-in-law of Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the Palestinian Authority, whose status and wealth assure them treatment anywhere in the world, chose to be treated in Israeli hospitals, as did the sister, daughter, and grand-daughter of Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader in Gaza, Israel's sworn enemy.
Despite these facts, the WHO voted on May 28 to accept the proposed field assessment with the predictably lopsided outcome of 107 votes in favor, 8 against, 8 abstentions and 58 absences. So far, all this is tediously routine.
But the composition of those voting blocs renders the decision noteworthy. Votes in favor included every state in Europe except two, Bosnia-Herzegovina (which has a half-Muslim population) and San Marino (total population: 33,000), both of which missed the vote for reasons unknown to me.
To repeat: Every other European government than those two supported a biased field assessment with its inevitable condemnation of Israel. To be specific, this included the authorities ruling in Albania, Andorra, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Making this European near-unanimity the more remarkable were the many absented governments with large- to overwhelming-majority-Muslim populations: Burkina Faso, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Togo, and Turkmenistan.
So, Iceland (with effectively no Muslims) voted for the amendment and against Israel, while Turkmenistan (which is more than 90 per cent Muslim) did not. Cyprus and Greece, which have critical new relations with Israel, voted against Israel while the historically hostile Libyans missed the vote. Germany, with its malignant history, voted against Israel, while Tajikistan, a partner of the Iranian regime, was absent. Denmark, with its noble history, voted against Israel while Sudan, led by an Islamist, did not.
This unlikely pattern suggests that monolithic Muslim hostility is cracking, while Europeans, who are overwhelmingly on the left, to the point that even so-called right-wing parties pursue watered-down left-wing policies, increasingly despise Israel. Worse, even those who do not share this attitude go along with it, even in an obscure WHO vote.
Muslims, not leftists, still staff almost all the violent attacks on Israel; and Islamism, not socialism, remains the reigning anti-Zionist ideology. But these changes point to Israel's cooling relations with the West and warming ones in its neighborhood.
Divine Retribution as Paris Middle-East Conference Gets Flooded - By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz - http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/69114/divine-retribution-paris-middle-east-conference-gets-flooded/#xu3sjWf5xbrLR148.97
"For, behold, Hashem cometh forth out of His place to visit upon the inhabitants of the earth their iniquity; the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain." Isaiah 26:21 (The Israel Bible�)
Divine retribution struck Thursday nights as world powers gathered in Paris for talks that could end in attempts to pressure Israel to accept a Palestinian state.
The conference ended and a divine reaction was almost immediate as the Seine River rose 20 feet overnight. Parts of the Metro system shut down, as did major landmarks. The Louvre museum was also closed as staff worked desperately to move 250,000 priceless works of art to safety. The Orsay Museum also scrambled to save its collections. Four people died and 4 were injured in France in the worst flood the country had seen in 30 years. More than 20,000 people have been evacuated in France since the weekend and 19,000 homes in and around Paris remain without electricity. The capital city remains under the second-highest alert, which warns of a "significant impact". Experts say it will take at least ten days for the flooding to return to normal levels.
French President Francois Hollande said the weather was a serious climate phenomenon and a global challenge.
The Paris conference brought together over 20 senior diplomats from the west and the Arab world to work on organizing a peace conference by the end of the year that would launch Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. US secretary of state, John Kerry, and UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, were at the Paris conference, along with representatives from the Arab League, the European Union and key Arab states. Israeli and Palestinian representatives were notably absent.
Laurent Fabius, the former French foreign minister who first proposed the peace initiative, originally suggested the international community should unilaterally recognize the Palestinian state if the direct talks fail to happen or bring results. Jean-Marc Ayrault, the present foreign minister, has chosen not to pursue this condition in negotiations. It was thought that this condition would be effective in forcing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to engage in negotiation. Prime Minister Netanyahu criticized the French initiative, saying direct talks between the Israelis and Palestinians are the best path to a peace agreement.
The Palestinians were enthusiastic about the initiative, which is based on a 2002 Saudi sponsored peace plan. The conference stressed the need for the creation of a contiguous Palestinian State inside Israeli territory. It blamed the failure of previous peace attempts on Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria. It did not mention Arab violence and incitement, Hamas' actions, or the need for the Palestinians to recognize a Jewish state or its right to exist.
The conference concluded Thursday night, just as the waters of the Seine began to rise. This is only one of many instances in the long line of attempts to force Israel into disastrous agreements that have met with natural disasters as clear signs of divine displeasure.
Abbas demands Jerusalem on 'Naksa Day' - By Ari Yashar - http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/213284#.V1WTFY-cE2x
On Jerusalem Day - or 'setback day' - PA head says Palestinians will accept 'nothing less' than a reset to 1967 borders.
Jerusalem Day on Sunday marks 49 years since Israel miraculously liberated eastern Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, Gaza and the Golan Heights against all the odds in the 1967 Six Day War - but Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairperson Mahmoud Abbas was busy mourning the day.
Abbas sent out a statement on "Naksa Day" as the Palestinian Arabs term it, with Naksa meaning setback in Arabic and indicating the "setback" as five Arab armies were unable to destroy Israel. The day is different than "Nakba Day," which marks the "catastrophe" when the Arab armies were unable to annihilate the fledgling renascent Jewish state in 1948.
"Our nation will in no way agree to anything less than a full end to the Israeli occupation which began in the June 1967 war," said Abbas in his Naksa Day statement as quoted by Channel 10.
The PA head elaborated his demand as including "the establishment of an independent sovereign Palestinian state whose capital is east Jerusalem on the '67 borders."
"Our nation which made many sacrifices for this goal will not agree to any reality that Israel tries to force on it, and particularly in Jerusalem and the holy places to Islam and Christianity," continued Abbas. "The Palestinian leadership has adhered to the principle of the solution of two states living in peace and security alongside each other, and everything connected to the occupation is illegal."
"The Palestinian side refuses any attempt to change the Arab initiative, as was decided upon in the Arab summit in 2002," he concluded, referencing a plan by which Israel would completely withdraw to the 1949 Armistice lines in return for paper promises not to attack by its Arab neighbors.
The Arab initiative is the basis of the French initiative currently being advanced, which seeks to force peace talks on Israel.
We want peace, but won't divide Jerusalem - http://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-we-want-peace-but-wont-divide-jerusalem/
Taking aim at Paris confab, PM says progress won't be made through international diktats, claims road to peace still long with Abbas at helm
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said that the Israeli capital of Jerusalem will never again be divided, while also reiterating his commitment to restarting peace talks with the Palestinians who, in any peace agreement, would want to see East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.
Speaking at an annual Jerusalem Day ceremony, marking 49 years since the capture of the city's eastern part including the Old City in the Six Day War and its reunification, Netanyahu said that Jerusalem "has its problems but that we would never go back to a reality of a divided, wounded city.
"We are in Jerusalem by right and not by charity, and we will continue to develop the city for all its residents," he said at the ceremony on Ammunition Hill.
The Six Day War in 1967 was a "rescue operation to remove an existential threat," said Netanyahu, adding that "time and again it's been proven that the best guarantee for our [continued] existence is our presence [here] and our ability to defend ourselves and ensure Israel's security."
Taking a jab at the recent peace conference in Paris on Friday aimed at setting the conditions for relaunching talks, Netanyahu said that peace was achievable through direct negotiations between the two sides "and not through international diktats."
Such endeavors "only distance peace," said the Netanyahu, and work to harden the Palestinians' stance, repeating a criticism he has leveled at the conference before.
"One of the names of Jerusalem is the City of Peace. The State of Israel wants peace. I want peace and I would like to renew the peace process in order to achieve [this]," he went on, adding that this could be achieved through talks with regional countries "and after our neighbors recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people."
In pointed criticism at the Palestinians and the Palestinian Authority led by President Mahmoud Abbas, Netanyahu said that there was still a long road to peace, given that "those who refuse to recognize Israel as the Jewish state deny the Jewish people's link to Jerusalem and turn the Temple Mount into a center of religious incitement."
Israel has repeatedly accused Abbas of failing to condemn the wave of Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians and security forces that erupted in mid-September amid tensions surrounding the Temple Mount, and says his PA hierarchy presides over incitement to violence against Israel.
Palestinians fear Israel seeks to change the governing rules at the compound, by which Jews and other non-Muslims can access but not pray at the site - a charge Netanyahu has repeatedly denied.
Earlier in the day, Abbas marked the occasion, known in the Arab world as the "Naksa," or "setback," by saying that Palestinians would settle for nothing less than a full withdrawal to the June 1967 lines and East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state.
Taking a softer tone at the Jerusalem Day ceremony, President Reuven Rivlin said that Arabs and Jews "were destined to live together" in the city and that if everyone recognized that, Jerusalem would be "not just a city of the past, but a city of hope, a city of the future.
"We must remember that Jerusalem is a microcosm of Israeli society as a whole, and the task of bringing together all its communities and tribes is a national mission," added the president.
The president and the prime minister spoke on Sunday amid heightened tensions surrounding the annual Jerusalem Day parade through the Old City that sees thousands of Israeli Jews marching through the Muslim Quarter waving Israeli flags, some chanting nationalist slogans.
In past years, several skirmishes were recorded, but Sunday's event ended peacefully.
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